DEFINITIONS 527
scious or unconscious, since in the act of apperceiving a
new content a prepared combination of contents unfail-
ingly emphasizes those qualities or motives which appear
to belong to the subjective content Hence a selection
or judgment takes place which excludes the irrelevant.
As to what is, and what is not, relevant is decided by
the already orientated combination or constellation of
contents. Whether the attitude's objective be conscious
or unconscious is immaterial to its selective effect, since
the choice is already given a priori through the attitude,
and therefore follows automatically. It is useful, however,
to distinguish between conscious and unconscious, since
the presence of two attitudes is extremely frequent, the
one conscious and the other unconscious. Which means
to say that the conscious has a preparedness of contents
different from that of the unconscious. This duality of
attitude is particularly evident in neurosis.
There is a certain kinship between the concept of
attitude and the apperception concept of Wundt, though
with this difference, that the idea of apperception includes
the process of relating the already prepared content to
the new content ta be apperceived, while the concept of
attitude relates exclusively to the subjectively prepared
content. Apperception is, as it were, the bridge which
connects the already present and prepared content with
the new content} the attitude being, in a sense, the end-
pier or abutment of the bridge upon the one bank, while
the new content represents the abutment upon the other
bank. Attitude signifies an expectation, an expectation
always operates selectively—it gives direction. The
presence of a strongly toned content in the field of cqn-
sciousness forms (sometimes together with other contents)
a certain constellation which is synonymous with a
definite attitude, because such a conscious content favours
the perception and apperception of everything similar,